CALTRANS PRESS RELEASE
Today’s Date: Monday, December 24, 2012 at 5 pm
District: 05 – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties
Contact: Susana Z Cruz (bilingual) or Colin Jones
Phone: (805) 549-3138 or 549-3189
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
*Update #2*
HIGHWAY 1 SOUTH OF BIG SUR IS CLOSED AT PARTINGTON RIDGE ROAD DUE TO A ROCK SLIDE; ROADWAY OPEN AT RAGGED POINT
MONTEREY COUNTY – Highway 1 will remain CLOSED overnight and Christmas Day a few miles south of Big Sur due to a major rock slide that occurred on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 23.
Caltrans is mobilizing an emergency contractor to clear the large debris field and to repair a 60-foot section of the damaged roadway at Partington Ridge Road.
The highway is shut down just south of Deetjens Big Sur Inn (Mile Marker 42) and at Lucia (Mile Marker 23). There is no official estimated time of opening but we are working to have one lane available to traffic later this week.
The rock slide south of Gorda at Mile Marker 7 was cleared at noon today so there is NO closure at Ragged Point in SLO County.
4:50 PM 14 [41] PER STEVE/CALTRANS MM 38 STILL CLOSED DUE TO LARGE ROCKS/BOULDERS ON RDWY [Shared]
11:00 am -Rock Knocker just saw a whole convoy of CalTrans vehicles heading north to Partington.
10:30 AM 52 [136] A27-014 150 DMG”D RDWY BOTH LNS , HOLES THROUGH OUT , BOULDERS LRGR THAN SUVS [Shared]
9:54 am – From my son, who needed to go north, this report:
“road is closed for the day, holes in road, rocks as big as cars, partington ridge road fell onto Hwy 1, going over NF, love you bye”
9:53 AM 42 [122] [Notification] [CHP]-CT SPOKE WITH DIST MNGR WILL TRY TO OPEN F/RAGGED PT TO WILLOW SPRINGS TO GET TRAFFIC FLOWING AROUND 1200 HRS WILL TRY TO DO THEIR BEST BUT MM 38.5 WILL POSS NOT BE OPEN TODAY [Shared]
9:44 AM 41 [119] [Notification] [CHP]-PER CALTRANS MM 38.5 AT THE BIG SUR AREA WILL BE CLOSED MOST OF THE DAY 1023”G FOR THE GEOLOGIST TO CHECK IF AREA IS STABLE [Shared]
9:00 am – here is the slide just south of Alder Creek. Photo by John Handy, of Treebones Resort. I will get it uploaded as soon as possible. The other slide is at Partington Rd. it has large, truck-sized boulders, so will take a while to clear. Hopefully, I will have a photo of that to upload later.
6:30 am – the Cal Trans crews should be rolling out just about now, probably in both directions to assess the damage, and hopefully clearing what they can. I wouldn’t expect a report from them for at least an hour, maybe two.
After midnight sometime, a reader reported VW sized boulders near the bottom of Partington Ridge Rd. , which is 15 miles north of Lucia. Whether this is the same, or a different one than reported as being just North of Lucia at MP 23, is anyone’s guess. CHP website reported this:
4:43 AM 38 [104] [Appended, 05:20:44] [1] LGE VEH SIZE BOULDERS IN RDWY [Shared]
I will update this post throughout the day as information becomes available.
We had a good hit with rain last night in CV but it’s stopped. I wonder if VW ever considered the imagery, myth and marvel of the VW bug that would follow: how many college kids can fit in one, how many clowns pour out of, the gear shift interference with courting, and perfect boulder size reference.
Hoping for quick clearance and safety for all. Thanks for the posting, Kate.
That is so funny. I remember when we had that 7.2 earthquake south of San Simeon when we were living in the mountains two miles from the epicenter and VW size rocks were rolling down the hill. One is still firmly planted in our farm at the bottom of the hill. Thank you for the quick reporting Kate and thank you holycowgirl for the belly laugh this morning. Gee I wonder how the road will be on Thursday when we are scheduled to make a trip to Esalen straight up Highway One with rain coming again on Tuesday night and Wednesday? Don’t you just love costal living. 🙂
We were the fourth or fifth car to reach the slide south of Big Sur/North of Lucia at approximately 5:15pm yesterday. We are from Texas, and we spoke with the Germans and a few others while we contemplated our options. I would agree that there were four or five boulders the size of VW Bugs (I own one) covering the entire road (we were relieved to discover that the reflector we could see was from the road, rather than a trapped car). About 20 minutes later CHP arrived from the north, and he advised us to turn around. A Cal Trans worker allowed us to go past the more southern slide (which we had passed while heading north). We arrived at Carmel (our destination) at about midnight. But at least we weren’t squished under a boulder.
I have some very dark video if you’re interested 🙂
Thank you Kate,
Trying to get to Esalen from Pfeiffer Ridge so very appreciative of any updates/projections you may have.
Even CT won’t project on this one! I don’t think it will be open today. Hope I’m wrong. I do know they are getting pressure to get it open ASAP, but the safety of the CT men and women, and of the motoring public, has to come first.
How about posting it on you tube and sending me a link? I could then point readers to it.
Here’s the video:
Oops http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oepugdqATsU